


Endings Waiting To Begin

by Secret Staircase (elwing_alcyone)



Category: Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen | Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
Genre: Angst, Gen, Married Couple, Obsessive Behaviour, Separations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-29
Updated: 2011-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-19 09:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/199457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elwing_alcyone/pseuds/Secret%20Staircase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sayaka goes to see Souya one last time before she leaves the island.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Endings Waiting To Begin

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Slipknot song, Circle. This piece's working title was "Souya is a loser", so make of that what you will. ;)

He notices her presence behind him only when she speaks his name.

"Souya."

He half-turns, enough to see Sayaka, or one side of her – elbow, cheek, one folded hand. He goes back to studying the fragments of the mask. Just a mouth and a forehead with jagged edges, and yet even these are so perfect his throat aches.

"The police found Ruka," she says from the door.

He grunts, annoyed by the distraction. "Good. When are you coming home?"

"We're not," she says. "I'm taking Ruka to the mainland." As usual, she is composed and grave, almost humble, and he doesn't believe her.

"Nonsense," he says. He's impatient, rubbing his thumb over the forehead of the mask, wishing to be alone. "She's my daughter. You can't take her away."

"I have to. She's not safe on this island, is she?"

"It's her home. Everyone she knows is here," Souya says.

He hears the rustle as she takes a step towards him. "The detective told me where she was found," she says, "and what she was wearing."

"And what about it?"

"Souya," she says sadly, "you must think I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew, or else that I don't notice what you do any longer. I know what you and Haibara were up to."

He snorts. "You haven’t the slightest idea." He traces the mouth of the mask. Its loveliness is indescribable. He can’t understand what went wrong.

"I won't argue with you any more," she says. "I only want to ask if you’ll come with us."

"What? Where?" He's growing irritated now. He doesn't need this hovering, berating woman distracting him from the mask.

"Away from this island. I know what’s happening; I see the signs. The disaster will happen again, just as it did in Souetsu's time, and everyone will – "

"Will you be silent about things that don't concern you?" he says, raising his voice.

She doesn't speak for a while, and he almost forgets she is there. He feels the broken edge of the mask, and she says,

"Souya, I'm asking as someone who loves you. Please, give all this up and come with us. I'm afraid of what might happen if you don't."

"Don't be ridiculous," he says, dismissing her with a jerk of his head. "Bring Ruka home tomorrow."

Another long silence, and she speaks so softly he hardly hears. "Goodbye."

He doesn't answer. The wood of the mask is black in his hands, and smooth under his fingertips. It was flawless; even in pieces, it remains flawless. He cannot comprehend why the ceremony failed.

The light in the workroom fades as night comes on, but he doesn't move. He needs no light to see by. The face of the mask remains before his eyes; it emerges from the darkness before him like the moon from behind a cloud.

At dawn the light returns, but he hardly notices. He is without food, drink, sleep, movement; he has shed them all and needs nothing, only the mask. He has traced the shattered lines of it until he knows them intimately, but still it holds its secret from him.

In the afternoon the faint sound of music from outside the window makes him think of Ruka, who, he realises, must be home by now. It feels like wood breaking as his stiff muscles move, and he puts the mask down and leaves his workshop. He wants to see what effect the mask of the Kanade had on her; that one did not break. Haibara said she became an empty shell after the festival, but with the masks he might be able to bring something back. He can learn from her.

But the house is silent as he wanders through it. Afternoon sunlight leans through the window askew over the emptiness of everything. He goes into every part of the house, and ends up in Sayaka's room, where he sits on the bed.

It makes him angry, to think of her leaving. He never thought Sayaka would go against him like this. She has always been trustworthy. Briefly, he considers going to look for her, because he still does not believe she will leave the island: she has nowhere to go. She’ll have found a friend to stay with somewhere, and Souya will find her and make her come home.

He thinks of going, but doesn’t.

He is sure he left the mask pieces in his workshop, but he finds them in his hand. The small mouth, the lovely curve of the chin, the elegant high forehead. "I don't understand," he says aloud.

He puts the fragments of the mask on Sayaka’s pillow. He doesn't remember her face now – the mask is the only face in the world – but he tries to remember. There was a song she was teaching Ruka; he hums it under his breath, a few notes, but he can't remember the rest. He's only being sentimental, reminiscing about a child’s music lessons.

Sayaka's words come back to him, though. The disaster, she said. Everyone will...

He didn't let her finish at the time. Die, he supposes she meant to say. He thought she was above such melodrama. Only more evidence that she understands nothing.

The song again. It drifts away like the tide rolling out, and this time it's not Sayaka's voice he hears. Perhaps it’s the voice of the mask. _The Day without Suffering will come again, just as it did in Souetsu’s time, and everyone, everyone will Bloom._

They call it a disaster. Souya lies down on the bed, with the pieces of the mask on the pillow beside him, and closes his eyes. It will be magnificent, the coming of their salvation.


End file.
